Review: 'Dying To Be Loved"

It's a familiar Lifetime movie angle -- a mother's worst nightmare comes true when her daughter start dating a a dangerous douchebag. That's what happens in "Dying To Be Loved," but mom isn't going to sit back and let some jerk brainwash her kid.

The movie stars Lifetime vet Lindsay Hartley ("Nightmare Nurse") as Jill. Everything is going great. She's engaged to Connor, a handsome guy with a heart of gold. And she loves her daughter Emily (Paloma Kwiatokowski) dearly. Emily has some issues though. She's an emotional mess and on a ton of meds.

Emily's knight in shining armor rides into her life in the form of Gary (Jedidiah Goodacre), a college security guard. This guy is a smooth talker and Emily falls hard for him. He makes a terrible impression on Jill when he acts like a lout ... even suggesting a threesome with her and Emily! Although his family seems nice enough (his brother is a cop), Gary is a first-class weasel.

Jill begins to learn some things about Gary through a private investigator and does her best to try to intervene in this ill-fated romance. Connor, however, is little to no help and thinks she may be overreacting.

Things come to a head when Emily and Gary apparently commit suicide as a gesture of love. Before the director can cue "Don't Fear the Reaper," Jill plays detective in an attempt to prove that they might be alive.

This is an above average Lifetime movie with solid performances, particularly from Hartley and Kwiatokowski. Goodacre, however, steals the show as the bombastic Gary. He's definitely one of the most despicable Lifetime villains I've seen in a while.

Director Paul Shapiro keeps things rolling along at a nice pace and inserts enough red herrings and clues to keep audiences interested.

"Dying To Be Loved" is a solid effort yet very typical of Lifetime fare. It has several plot elements we've seen in other movies on the network but comes across as a sharp thriller. If you missed last night's premiere, look for it in the Lifetime or LMN schedule soon.

"Dying To Be Loved": Directed by Paul Shapiro: Starring Lindsay Hartley as Jill, Paloma Kwiatokowski as Emily, Jedidiah Goodacre as Gary, Dan Payne as Connor, James Pizzinato as Ritchie, Jay Brazeau as Al